BOOKS: "Exonerated" Tells the Story of the Innocence Movement

Exonerated: A History of the Innocence Movement, by Robert J. Norris, describes the rise of the "innocence movement," the lawyers, investigators, journalists, lawmakers, and organizations that have worked to uncover wrongful convictions, educate the public about the problem, and reform the criminal justice system to prevent future mistakes. For the book, Norris interviewed 37 key leaders on the issue, including Innocence Project co-founders Barry Scheck and Peter Neufeld, and Rob Warden, co-founder of Northwestern University's Center on Wrongful Convictions. He also researched major cases, such as the exoneration of Kirk Bloodsworth, the first wrongly death-sentenced person to be exonerated by DNA evidence, and reviewed studies on innocence. Exonerated explores how separate scientific, legal, and cultural developments coalesced, leading to a broader understanding of how technology—particularly DNA testing—and more reliable investigative techniques could exonerate the innocent and combat the risks of wrongful convictions. And the book explains how this greater understanding of wrongful convictions was a catalyst in transforming public attitudes about capital punishment. Richard A. Leo, author of The Wrong Guys: Murder, False Confessions and the Norfolk Four, said, "Exonerated is the definitive account of how the innocence movement transformed public views about the everyday fallibility of the American criminal justice system in the late 20th century, and why preventing the wrongful convictions of the factually innocent remains more important than ever in the 21st century.” 159 men and women who were wrongly convicted and sentenced to death in the United States have been exonerated in the 45 years since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia overturned existing death-penalty laws in 1972.